The last person David Bowie followed on Twitter was "God" - an account with more than two million fans.
It plays into fan speculation that the singer knew his death was coming, as he used references in his lyrics of his final album released on 8 January.
The account (@TheTweetofGod) is actually linked to a Broadway play and not linked in any way to the Vatican or the big guy in the sky.
It's not known if Bowie hit "follow" himself or one of his team was told to.
But fans are pleased he followed God and think it was a genius move.
And it seems even God was a fan of Bowie.
Separately, there's an Italian petition to God asking people to say "NO" to David Bowie no longer being with us.
It's had more than 1,000 signatures.
Lyrics on Bowie's final album Blackstar, which was released on his 69th birthday two days before his death, include "Look up here, I'm in heaven" taken from Lazarus.
Fans believe it was a clever way for David Bowie to say goodbye.
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Almost 500 captains, coaches and journalists had their say in voting for Fifa’s Ballon d’Or, with Lionel Messi unsurprisingly walking away with his fifth title with an incredible share of 41.3%.
That was despite once again not featuring in his great rival Cristiano Ronaldo’s top three, although the Barcelona forward also repaid the compliment to his Real Madrid counterpart. Messi picked his Barça team-mates Luis Suárez, Neymar and Andrés Iniesta, while Ronaldo sided with his club colleagues Karim Benzema, James Rodríguez and Gareth Bale.
That was just one of the curiosities revealed byFifa’s publication of how the votes were shared,with a few other eye-catching results. In particular, the Pakistan coach Mohammed Shamlan Mubarak Basheer Al Shamlan plumped for Arjen Robben despite the Bayern Munich forward having spent most of the year on the treatment table, while the Guatemala and Mauritania captains both went for Javier Mascherano.
The Argentina defender was Roy Hodgson’s choice last year but this time the England manager placed Ronaldo first, followed by Messi and Chelsea’s Eden Hazard. The Wales manager, Chris Coleman, and his captain Ashley Williams kept things close to home by voting for Gareth Bale ahead of both Messi and Ronaldo, perhaps with his contribution to their successful Euro 2016 qualifying campaign in mind. They were joined by Drew Sherman of the Cook Islands and Brunei’s Mike Wong Mun Heng.
That meant the Real Madrid forward was placed 16th, making him the only British player to finish in the top 20. Five Premier League players also made the 23-man shortlist but only two made it into the top 10 – Hazard in eighth with 1.3% of votes and Arsenal’s Alexis Sánchez in 10th. The Manchester City trio Yaya Touré, Sergio Agüero and Kevin De Bruyne finished 12th, 13th and 18th respectively.
But perhaps the biggest surprise was the choice of Paul Pogba’s brother. Having been voted into the World XI, the Juventus midfielder may have felt he could rely on the support of his older sibling Florentin, who plays for Saint-Étienne. But the Guinea captain opted for Messi, Ronaldo and the Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer instead.
Artist Sophie Diao has imagined scenes from three stories by the French author who collected fairytales such as Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty
Once upon a time, a search engine named Google decided to celebrate the 388th birthday of Charles Perrault, the French author celebrated for collecting fairytales from Cinderella to Sleeping Beauty in the 17th century.
Today’s Google’s doodle was created by the artist Sophie Diao, and shows her imagining of scenes from three of the stories Perrault collected in Les Contes de ma Mère l’Oye (Mother Goose Stories) in 1697. Cinderella is shown in her coach transformed from a pumpkin: “Being thus decked out, she got up into her coach; but her godmother, above all things, commanded her not to stay till after midnight, telling her, at the same time that if she stayed at the ball one moment longer her coach would be a pumpkin again, her horses mice, her coachman a rat, her footmen lizards, and her clothes become just as they were before,” wrote Perrault, more than 300 years ago.
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The Sleeping Beauty is depicted fast asleep, a startled prince preparing to wake her: “At last he came into a chamber all gilded with gold, where he saw upon a bed, the curtains of which were all open, the finest sight was ever beheld: a princess, who appeared to be about 15 or 16 years of age, and whose bright, and in a manner resplendent beauty, had somewhat in it divine. He approached with trembling and admiration, and fell down before her upon his knees,” wrote Perrault.
And Puss in Boots is shown by Diao holding forth in front of a grumpy-looking ogre; Perrault’s version of the scene sees the cat telling the ogre: “I have been assured … that you have the gift of being able to change yourself into all sorts of creatures you have a mind to; you can, for example, transform yourself into a lion, or elephant, and the like.” The ogre is eventually persuaded to transform himself into a mouse, whereupon Puss eats him.
Perrault was born in 1628, and worked as an adviser in the French court of Louis XIV. He only began to write his fairy stories, borrowing the plots and the well-known opening, “once upon a time” or il était une fois, from folk tales, later in life.
“Perrault’s stories set the standard for the modern fairytale,” said Google. “The publication of the tales coincides with the rise of the modern novel: they came after Don Quixote and La Princesse de Clèves, but before Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones. The backbone of these fairytales persists within contemporary novels and movies, making our reading or cinema-going a fundamentally optimistic venture: when we hear ‘once upon a time’, we’ve come to expect –and anxiously await – a ‘happily ever after’.”
Perrault’s stories also include Little Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard. In The Classic Fairy Tales, Iona and Peter Opie write that the French author’s “achievement was that he accepted the fairy tales at their own level” and “recounted them without impatience, without mockery, and without feeling they required any aggrandisement, such as a frame-story, though he did end each tale with a rhymed moralité.”
The stories he chose, writes Neil Philip in The Complete Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, might have been old, but what he did with them was new. “Writing for a jaded audience at the sumptuous court of Louis XIV of France, he entertained them with the simple stories of the people. He gave the tales a more courtly dress and a more knowing air than they would have had in a peasant’s cottage, but he did not make fun of them or spoil them with literary embroidery. He let them speak for themselves, and in the process revealed that what they had to say was not so simple after all.”
Playboy’s founder, Hugh Hefner, is selling the Playboy Mansion, a place he’s called home since 1971. Hefner’s estate sits on six acres in the popular Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, so he’s slapped a $200 million price sticker on the mansion. The new owner will acquire a property famous for wild parties, acres of land to use at their disposal, and access to Hefner—because he doesn’t plan to vacate the property.
As a stipulation for purchasing the home, Hefner must be given a life estate, according to TMZ. A life estate guarantees the 89-year-old access to the property until he dies.
The famed magazine publisher is so committed to this agreement that he’s refusing to allow potential buyers to peruse his current living quarters.
The multiple demands may dissuade some buyers, especially since TMZ is reporting that the Playboy Mansion isn’t worth $200 million. Realtors estimate that Hefner may pocket between $80 million and $90 million because of the home’s famous history, though other properties in the area are only going for $60 million.
"Hoy creo más en el Chapo Guzmán que en los gobiernos que me esconden verdades aunque sean dolorosas". Con ese contundente y polémico mensaje escrito en 2012 a través de sucuenta de Twitter, la actriz mexicana Kate del Castillo ganó, cuatro años después, la confianza deJoaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán y se convirtió en la única mujer en obtener una entrevista cara a cara con el capo.
Y es que Del Castillo, quien tiene una larga trayectoria actoral en México y una carrera en ascenso en Estados Unidos, escribió a inicios de 2012 un texto en el que habló, sin inhibiciones, de sus creencias sobre el matrimonio y la monogamia. Aseguró, en un país con mayoría católica, que la Biblia “manipula en algunos de sus pasajes”, y que las Instituciones del gobierno se dedican a “aterrorizar”.
Pero lo más polémico resultó en una segunda faceta de su escrito. Ahí decidió enviarle un mensaje a Joaquín Guzmán Loera, el capo más peligroso de la droga, que en ese momento se encontraba prófugo de la justicia:
“Sr. Chapo, ¿no estaría padre que empezara a traficar con el bien? ¿Con las curas para las enfermedades? ¿Con comida para los niños de la calle? ¿Con alcohol para los asilos de ancianos que no los dejan pasar sus últimos años haciendo lo que se les pegue la reverenda chingada? ¿Con traficar con políticos corruptos y no con mujeres y niños que terminan como esclavos? ¿Con quemar todos esos "puteros" donde la mujer no vale más que una cajetilla de cigarros? Sin oferta no hay demanda, anímese Don, sería usted el héroe de héroes, trafiquemos con amor, usted sabe cómo”, publicó la actriz mexicana en 2012.
Captura de pantalla de la cuenta de Twitter de Kate del Castillo tomada por la revista Quién
Fragmento de la carta publicada en 2012 por Kate del Castillo.
De inmediato, las redes sociales se encendieron a favor y en contra de la actriz. Lo que para muchos era considerado una opinión personal, para otros era una clara apología al narcotráfico.
Semanas después, en una entrevista televisiva, al ser cuestionada sobre el mensaje que envió al narcotraficante, Kate aseguró que no lo conocía y tampoco le contestó el mensaje.
“Lo de El Chapo era una ironía totalmente, era sarcasmo. Ahora sé que soy muy mala escritora porque mucha gente no lo tomó así” dijo Del Castillo en una entrevista televisiva en febrero de 2012.
El encuentro
No obstante, este sábado, la revista Rolling Stone dio a conocer que en octubre pasado la actriz mexicana, junto con el actor y director estadounidense Sean Penn, tuvieron un encuentro personal con el capo en una zona selvática de México.
Según la publicación, Guzmán Loera contestó a través de un video las preguntas de Sean Penn y presentó las imágenes como propiedad de Kate del Castillo, publicadas en el sitio de la revista. El encuentro, de acuerdo con el artículo, se dio el 2 de octubre del año pasado.
Lea: La cena de Sean Penn y Kate del Castillo con "El Chapo" durante la fuga.
Esta no es la primera vez que Penn y Del Castillo se encuentran. Justo en esos días, la actriz publicó una imagen en su cuenta de Instagram al lado del actor estadounidense. Ambos se encontraban en un festejo con mariachis y tequila. Aunque el pie de foto no detalla la razón del encuentro, algunos medios de comunicación aseguraron que se debía a un festejo adelantado de cumpleaños de la actriz. Cumplió 43 años el 23 de octubre.
Su poderío ‘narco’ en los set de tv
Pero para Kate del Castillo el mundo del narcotráfico no es nada nuevo, por lo menos no dentro de los sets de grabación. En marzo de 2011 dio vida a Teresa Mendoza –el famoso personaje del escritor Pérez Reverte- en la miniserie La Reina del Sur, una inocente joven mexicana, nacida precisamente en el estado de Sinaloa quien, después del asesinato de su novio, se convierte en una poderosa y temeraria mujer al frente de un jugoso negocio del narcotráfico en el estrecho de Gibraltar.
En esos años, cuando la prensa la cuestionaba sobre su decisión de realizar una telenovela con la temática de contrabando de drogas, Kate aseguraba que el tema del narcotráfico era circunstancial -para ella, dijo, representaba un reto dar vida a una mujer que tomó decisiones equivocadas en el nombre del amor.
Cuando Kate encarnó a Teresa Mendoza no era nueva en el mundo de la actuación. Siguiendo los pasos de su papá, Eric del Castillo (uno de los actores considerados leyenda de la época de oro del cine mexicano), comenzó su carrera a los 8 años con el filme El último escape. Fue hasta 1991 cuando su rostro de tez morena y cejas pobladas saltó a la fama.
Tras una serie de telenovelas y películas mexicanas, en 2008 se abrió pasó entre el público latino de Estados con la película La misma Luna, uno de los filmes de habla hispana más taquilleros en la historia del país, que retrata el tema de la vida de los inmigrantes indocumentados.
A partir de ese momento Del Castillo comenzó su carrera en la televisión americana en la serieAmerican Family, que fue nominada al Globo de Oro, y también apareció como estrella invitada en la serie Weeds, interpretando a Pilar Zuazo, una poderosa líder de la mafia mexicana.
Y a pesar de haber asegurado no querer volver a las series televisivas tras el éxito de La Reina del Sur, Del Castillo anunció en 2014 que interpretaría a la viuda de un capo del narco en la serie “Dueños del Paraíso” para la televisora Telemundo.
A mediados de 2015, la actriz dio detalles de la nueva serie Ingobernable, que se deberá transmitirse a través de Netflix y en la que interpretará a la Primera Dama de México. Una mujer fuerte, con ideas propias que le harán ambicionar la presidencia, aseguró Del Castillo en entrevistas a la prensa. Según los comunicados, la serie comenzará a rodarse a principios de este año
Tras la noticia de la reunión secreta con El Chapo, la cadena de televisión estadounidense ABC News aseguró que fuentes del gobierno mexicano le confirmaron que ambos actores están siendo investigados.
After fighting for the freedom of illegal slaves in Steven Spielberg’s period courtroom drama Amistad, this time Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey is taking on the Confederacy head-on in Free State of Jones. The film sees McConaughey leading the true story of Southern farmer Newt Knight who turns against the Confederacy that he once fought for and attempts to turn Jones County, Mississippi into a free state. And now the first Free State of Jones trailer shows off the epic Civil War drama.
Here’s the first Free State of Jones trailer from STX Entertainment:
While I’m exactly a fan of this trailer, mostly because it seems to give away a little too much, especially with that scene during the funeral at the church. That’s something that should have been saved for the movie. However, I think footage like that is being used to sell this as having more action than might actually be in the movie.
There’s a recent profile from The New Yorker on STX Entertainment mentioning how they spent an extra $500,000 to get more extras and cameras on hand for the opening battle sequence in order to have “enough huge Civil War action to justify the more intimate movie that follows.” So much for just letting the movie speak for itself, but the article on STX provides some great insight into the entertainment industry right now, and I recommend reading it in full.
Even though this isn’t all that great of a trailer, the true story of Newt Knight is fascinating enough for me to at least be interested in seeing the movie. Giving it a May release date is pretty bold as well, so the movie must be pretty good, right? At the very least we get to hear Matthew McConaughey use that sultry Southern accent of his, which is something that I think both men and women can enjoy.
Written and directed by four-time Oscar nominee Gary Ross (The Hunger Games, Seabiscuit, Pleasantville), and starring Oscar® winner Matthew McConaughey, Free State of Jones is an epic action-drama set during the Civil War, and tells the story of defiant Southern farmer, Newt Knight, and his extraordinary armed rebellion against the Confederacy. Banding together with other small farmers and local slaves, Knight launched an uprising that led Jones County, Mississippi to secede from the Confederacy, creating a Free State of Jones. Knight continued his struggle into Reconstruction, distinguishing him as a compelling, if controversial, figure of defiance long beyond the War.
Kiersey Clemons keeps it cute on the red carpet as she arrives at the Art For Amnesty Pre-Golden Globes Recognition Brunch held at Chateau Marmont on Friday afternoon (January 8) in Los Angeles.
Bringing along pal and former Eye Candy co-star Harvey Guillen with her, the two were also joined by singers Tori Kelly and Andra Day.
The organization, which has fought beside activists from Nelson Mandela to Malala Yousafzai, honored three individuals for artistically promoting freedom of expression: Participant Media founder and chairman Jeff Skoll, The Big Short writer/director Adam McKay and Homeland actress Nazanin Boniadi.
AJ McCarron had the best support team of all entering his first career NFL playoff start for the Cincinnati Bengals, and it’s thanks to his wife, Katherine Webb.
Webb, who became famous during Alabama’s national championship game when she was shouted out by Brent Musburger for being McCarron’s attractive girlfriend, has remained together with the QB ever since then. Not only did they get married but now Katherine is pregnant with what will be their first child.
Luckily she’s not so far along in the pregnancy where she can’t attend games. She was in the house Saturday night for the Bengals’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers, and she was pumped.
Katherine and AJ should be used to the pressure. McCarron played in two national championship games in college.
